


Last Tango in New Orleans

by DreamsOfSleep



Category: New Girl
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, F/M, Slight Smut, downer ending, the darkest timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 15:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6962542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsOfSleep/pseuds/DreamsOfSleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate ending to my fic <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/6844933/chapters/15625048">"Paradise Nick and Paradise Jess Take on New Orleans"</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Tango in New Orleans

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Paradise Nick and Paradise Jess Take On New Orleans](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6844933) by [DreamsOfSleep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsOfSleep/pseuds/DreamsOfSleep). 



> This is an alternate ending to my fic "Paradise Nick and Paradise Jess Take on New Orleans" starting from "Ch 9: I Think About It All The Time." Nick kisses Jess instead of turning away from her. He tells her he wants her back and she tells him no.
> 
> I was just messing around with writing dialogue and this really depressing ending came out. I was just thinking about the type of characters Nick and Jess were in S2 and the type of characters they are now in S5. Honestly, I don't really like what the writers have done with either Nick or Jess post-S3 so maybe my pessimistic feelings about that just came out in this fic. Sorry if this bums you out; go read the original for the happy, fluffy ending though! That's the true ending; we'll just call this version what happens on The Darkest Timeline (#communityreference).

She tries to wake him up at 6AM to go see an art exhibit.

He pulls the covers over his head but he can still feel her presence standing at the side of his bed with her hands on her hips tapping her foot, glaring down at him.

Mischievously, he throws off the covers and grabs her arm. "C’mere," he says, wrapping her in his arms and pulling her back down onto the bed. "Just be mega-chill…" 

He can feel her laughter through her whole body. He lets her go and they lie next to each other in his bed looking into each other’s faces. Laughter makes the sides of her eyes crinkle up. He brushes her hair back from her face and thinks about kissing her. 

_‘Don’t think about it,’_ Nick says to himself as he leans in to her. He kisses her like he’s been wanting to do ever since they broke up and for five magical minutes she is kissing him back too before she pushes him away.

Slightly breathless she says to him, “We shouldn’t be doing this, Nick. It’s just because we’re on vacation and hanging out like we used to so all our old feelings are resurfacing, but we tried this already and it doesn’t work.”

Her words hurt him; he just wants to go back to kissing her. “Can’t we just pretend, Jess?” he whispers to her. “Regular Nick and Regular Jess don’t work but maybe Paradise Nick and Paradise Jess do.”

She shakes her head at him and he can see tears forming behind her eyes. “It doesn’t work that way, Nick.” She gets up off his bed and leaves the room.

\---

He waits for her all day but she never comes back to the room. His calls to her go directly to voice mail. He paces the room and worries about her. _You idiot! Why did you kiss her? Everything was going so well and you ruined it._ When he can no longer stand it, he goes looking for her.

After traversing the whole city and coming up empty, he finally finds her on the hotel roof sitting on the ledge on the other side of the fence.

He feels relieved, then angry. “Why didn’t you pick up your phone, Jess? I didn’t know where you were or what happened to you.”

“I just wanted to be alone, Nick,” she says in a flat voice with her back to him.

He climbs the fence and goes to sit down next to her. “Talk to me, Jess.”

“I shouldn’t have come, Nick. It just made everything confusing again.”

He feels her words cut into his heart. “You came because I said I needed you. You’re always there when I need you.” 

“We can’t keep holding onto each other, Nick. We need to let each other go.”

He touches her arm so she’ll look at him. “Jess, I don’t want to let you go.”

”What…what does that mean?”

“I want you back. I want to try ‘us’ again. We shouldn’t have broken up. I still love you and I want us to get back together again for real.”

She looks stunned. The silence drags on as she doesn’t say anything back to him. She just stares at him like she is trying to figure him out.

“Say something, Jess,” he chokes out. “I’ve been wanting to say that to you for a long time, and I understand if you can’t say it back to me, but even if it’s a ‘no’, say something.”

“I can’t, Nick…” she says and it breaks his heart. He turns away from her and looks down at the city below.

“If it’s a no, I can’t be your friend, Jess…I can’t just be your friend.”

He gets up and walks away from her, climbing back over the fence and leaving her on the roof alone again.

He goes back into their room and crawls under his covers to sleep. 

\---

In the middle of the night he feels her crawl under his covers and cuddle up next to him.

“What do you want, Jess?” he says tiredly with his eyes closed. 

“I want to pretend,” she whispers back to him.

He opens his eyes and turns his head to look at her. Her eyes are sad. 

“What about all that stuff you said?...About us not working and the confusing feelings?...”

“I just want you, Nick. Right now I just want you.” She leans in to kiss him and he lets her. She starts to undress and he doesn’t stop her. He looks at her and thinks she is still the most gorgeous thing he's ever seen in his entire life. He knows this will hurt him but he lets her guide his hands and doesn’t think about the consequences.

\---

In the morning, he watches her sleep.

She opens her eyes and they are blue like the ocean. “Morning,” she says sleepily, happily. 

“Jess, why can’t we make this work?” he asks her. “You asked me once if I thought about our future. I do; I think about it all the time. Why can’t I give that to you?”

“We’re just too different, Nick.” 

“I love you though. That’s the thing I know most in the entire world, Jess. I’ll never stop loving you.” 

“It’s not enough.”

He gives her a rueful smile. “It never is.”

“But we’re here together now. Let’s just pretend for a little while longer…” 

\---

So they do, they pretend to be a couple for the rest of the trip. And after they get off the plane and just before they have to take a taxi home, he stops her in the middle of the terminal and kisses her fiercely for the last time. 

The next day he packs up his stuff and moves out of the loft. She doesn’t see him again. 


End file.
